Developing a self-directed learning environment that motivates employees to maximize learning opportunities

Abstract

As America’s corporations continue to attempt to maximize their profits, finding the time and resources to train their workforces will most likely become an on-going challenge. One solution is for organizations to rely upon individual employees to assume the responsibility for delivering training and building the needed skills to deliver results. But to do so, employees will need to become more self-directed in undertaking their learning opportunities. With that in mind, this paper examined one such local organization that requires its employees to possess a high degree of self-direction, but has experienced unfavorable training results. The objective of the research was to gain insight and offer recommendations or solutions to the following five questions: 1. What are the influences upon learning that can affect a training system’s results? 2. What are the employees’ attitudes towards the current training system? 3. What are the employees’ views towards self-directed learning? 4. What are the characteristics and requirements of a positive self-directed learning environment? 5. What motivates employees to be self-directed learners? The methodology used to arrive at solutions included a survey and literature review of current information. The survey was administered to a single department within this organization seeking their attitudes concerning self-directed learning, learning styles, motivation to learn, and their feelings towards the current learning environment. The survey also contained ten open-ended questions relating to various aspects of the current training environment as a means for the participants to explain their responses. The findings revealed several possible problem areas within the department’s training system. Of greatest concern was the training environment. Employees felt the training process was poor and that management support of the process was questionable. In addition, current training methods did not seem to accommodate different learning styles and supporting training materials were judged as poor. The results also portrayed a learning profile of the typical employee within this department. As a whole, this group appears to have a strong preference towards selfdirected learning. Most want the learning to help make their job easier, want to be financially rewarded, prefer to learn on their own, and must understand why they must know what they are required to learn. This department could benefit by performing a self-audit aimed at identifying the presence of the characteristics of an effective self-directed learning system discussed in this research. Along with this, a close examination of the survey responses, in particular the open-ended questions, can be a tool in helping understand the employees’ current training attitudes and perhaps, be additional topics of further study.